Ohio students create documentary about town hit by Katrina

NORTH CANTON, Ohio -- Two years after Hurricane Katrina blasted the Gulf Coast, residents in Bay St. Louis, Miss., still are working on the recovery effort.

Edd Pritchard

Two years after Hurricane Katrina blasted the Gulf Coast, residents in Bay St. Louis, Miss., still are working on the recovery effort.
The community’s high school suffered extensive damage, and not everything has been repaired.
“We have all of the buildings open for the kids, and that’s what’s important,” said Marca Alexander, Bay St. Louis High School principal.
Efforts to rebuild the high school became the focus of a documentary filmed, written and produced by students in Hoover High’s video production and journalism program.
Called “Pieces of Paradise, Rebuilding Bay St. Louis,” the documentary is among four nominees in the Public Affairs Programs - Specials category in the 38th annual Emmy Awards for the Lower Great Lakes Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.
Winners will be announced Sept. 8. The Hoover documentary is competing against programs developed by WKYC, Channel 3 in Cleveland and WFYI, a PBS station in Indianapolis.
Seven of the eight Hoover students -- all graduates -- and their teachers will have a small reunion at the awards ceremony in Cleveland.
They would love to be joined by Alexander and others from Bay St. Louis, but that won’t be possible. It’s a long trip, and it’s homecoming weekend, Alexander said.
So she’ll be rooting for the Hoover students from afar.
“Those kids did a remarkable job on their documentary, and it just touched the hearts of our community,” Alexander said.
How it Started
Shortly after Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast two years ago, Hoover students adopted Bay St. Louis High as a place to help. They worked with Jackson High School and other area high schools to raise more than $28,000.
In March 2006, eight seniors in the Hoover program spent spring break at Bay St. Louis and collected 16 hours of filmed interviews that were used to make the film.
About 400 people watched the film in Bay St. Louis, said Amanda Breckenridge, who handled public relations for the school. “You could have heard a pin drop, it was so poignant,” she said.
Alexander added: “There wasn’t a dry eye in the house.”
In the Competition
The film also aired daily on Channel 11, a cable access channel used by the North Canton City Schools. Those airings qualified the film for Emmy competition, said Tom Wilson, a teacher in the Hoover program. (The documentary also aired on PBS Channels 45-49.)
The documentary already has one student Emmy award for directing.
It’s the second time Hoover students have competed for a regional Emmy with professional television stations. Two years ago, “Hometown Heroes: The Story of North Canton” was nominated.
“We kind of like being the underdog going against the big guys,” Wilson said of the Emmy nominations. “It’s fun to be in that position.”
The students are surprised and excited to be nominated. “We’re honored more than anything,” said Brittany Wasko, who helped produce, write and narrate the film. She is attends Kent State University.
Canton Repository

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